Chapter 995: Help
It was difficult for Song Chaoyuan to answer the question asked by Zhang Hao for a while, because the scope was too large. Moreover, Song Yuanchao understood the general direction of capital operation, but he did not know much about the details. After all, he was not a financial professional, and with his current identity and status, he did not need to do . There were professional teams to handle it, and he only needed to make requests.
However, since Zhang Hao asked, Song Yuanchao still patiently answered some basic questions. After talking for a while, he curiously asked Zhang Hao why he suddenly thought of asking these questions? Wasn't the Netscape issue resolved? Now Zhang Hao has withdrawn from Netscape's management and transferred most of his shares. There are not many left.
"Brother...it's like this...I invested in an Internet navigation guide company owned by a friend some time ago. This company has been growing very fast these days, and some capital has been trying to approach it, so I plan to..." Zhang Hao explained to Song Yuanchao on the phone. Song Yuanchao was very surprised after hearing this. It had only been a short time, and Zhang Hao had just left Netscape and he was already investing in yet another Internet company?
"Didn't you go back to school? Why did you suddenly think of investing in this company?" Song Yuanchao asked puzzledly.
"What a coincidence, brother, have you heard of the Hundred Men Society?"
"The Committee of 100? It sounds familiar. Let me think..." Song Chaoyuan thought for a moment and asked, "Is it the Chinese elite association in the United States led by architect Mr. Bei? What's wrong? Are they inviting you to join the Committee of 100?"
"Haha, you guessed it right." Zhang Hao said with a smile on the phone, and then told Song Chaoyuan that Dongfang Ze visited him and left an invitation, and that on his way back to school from Los Angeles, he accidentally went to the Los Angeles branch and thus joined the Committee of 100.
Afterwards, Zhang Hao mentioned how Dongfang Ze introduced himself to Jerry that day. It was for this reason that Zhang Hao met Jerry and learned about the Internet navigation guide that Jerry and his friend David had developed.
After returning, Zhang Hao carefully studied Jerry and his team's product and found that the Internet navigation guide they developed did have some features and ideas. After contact and discussion between the two parties, Zhang Hao joined the project and invested in Jerry and David, thus establishing a formal Internet company together.
Zhang Hao personally invested US$1.5 million, owning 38% of the shares of the Internet company and becoming one of the founders .
However, due to the previous Netscape, Zhang Hao did not serve as the chairman or CEO of the company as he did in the past, but only had a CTO title. At the same time, Zhang Hao was not responsible for specific affairs, but mainly responsible for some technical aspects and Internet business guidance, which also avoided some unnecessary troubles.
The reason why Zhang Hao decided to make this investment was partly because of Jerry. He and Jerry got along well after they met through Dongfang Ze. Moreover, both of them were Chinese and technical people, so they had a lot in common.
The second aspect is that although Zhang Hao left Netscape and seemed calm on the surface, he was unwilling to accept this outcome in his heart. After all, as the founder of Netscape, Zhang Hao had invested a lot of effort from the beginning, just like a parent watching his child grow up and finally become successful, but at this time, the child suddenly ran away from home, and it happened against his will. Even if Zhang Hao was strong in his heart, he could not avoid feeling lost and regretful.
For these reasons, plus the fact that after Zhang Hao carefully studied Jerry's Internet navigation guide product, he was indeed optimistic about the ideas and thoughts of this product, so Zhang Hao decided to invest in Jerry and David and start this company together. This can be regarded as a way to make up for his inner reluctance after leaving Netscape.
After Zhang Hao joined the project, with technical support and Zhang Hao's financial support, the company developed rapidly after registration. In less than two months, with the upgrading and improvement of the product, the number of visits began to increase. At this time, Zhang Hao proposed the idea of advertising cooperation to convert the number of visits into revenue. This idea was approved by Jerry and David, so they tried it out.
Who would have thought that the first attempt would be successful. Although the revenue converted from visits through advertising was not much, it was an unprecedented way of making profits for a website, and it directly opened the beginning of the Internet's transformation from virtual to revenue.
This is revolutionary for the current Internet, in terms of converting products into profits. It should be noted that the Internet has not been around for long, but many companies, including individuals, have been in the exploratory stage in converting Internet products into profits.
The most common model is to pay for the use of the product, such as Netscape Navigator, which is an Internet software that earns revenue through customers' purchases. However, websites and browsers are two different things. The former is a software, and software sales are normal business practices. However, websites are open sites , not separate software. What attracts people is the information on the website.
Attracting people to visit the website only generates traffic, which is real but never generates real revenue. But now, Zhang Hao and his team use the advertising model to convert traffic into real revenue, which can be said to be a groundbreaking model and has brought a new business idea to many other websites.
After pioneering this model, the company further increased its investment in the website and continued to improve the templates and algorithms of the navigation guide, based on user experience and achieving more appropriate and user-friendly technical updates.
In addition, at Zhang Hao's suggestion, the website's portal was subdivided, and new templates were added to the original simple templates, such as entertainment templates, news templates, life templates, sports templates, etc. These have greatly attracted the interest of visiting users, making users have a certain degree of stickiness, thereby further increasing the number of visits.
Through this series of models, the number of visits to the website has skyrocketed again. Last month, the daily number of visits to the website just exceeded 100,000, and before the end of this month, it has reached 300,000, and this number is still increasing, which makes Zhang Hao and others very happy.
As the number of visits to the website continued to increase, advertising revenue also began to increase, and the website became more and more famous.
Now, some investors have begun to pay attention to this newly established Internet company, especially when they found out that Zhang Hao was also the founder of this company, which immediately aroused the strong interest of many investors. Just yesterday, Zhang Hao received a call from Jerry, who told Zhang Hao on the phone that a capital company had formally proposed to invest in their company and offered a good price for the company's valuation.
After receiving the information, Jerry and David were extremely excited. The attention of capital meant that their efforts were recognized. Both Jerry and David were now inclined to talk to capital, find the most suitable capital cooperation, and use the power of capital to make their company the second Netscape and achieve huge success.
Zhang Hao was surprised by the news , but he also felt that it was reasonable. He just didn't expect success to come so quickly. It had only been a few months since he decided to set up a company with Jerry. The capital's acumen had exceeded Zhang Hao's imagination, and it came to him so quickly.
Although Zhang Hao invested in the company and was also the founder of the company, capital investment and personal investment are completely different. Zhang Hao, who had experienced the success of Netscape, was very clear about the difference. From the perspective of the company's future development, including for individuals, the Internet company introduced capital and then went public like Netscape. This was an inevitable outcome.
Once these operations are successful, Jerry and David will be the next Mark and Jimmy, and Zhang Hao will once again become a celebrity on the Internet.
Faced with this situation, it was difficult for Zhang Hao to refuse, because if he refused, Jerry and David would definitely object, and the three people who had been working closely together would have a rift, which would be a huge blow to the development of the company. But if he agreed, Zhang Hao knew very well how the capital would be operated next, and then he would be exposed to the eyes of the Immigration Bureau.
Last time, Zhang Hao made a huge concession, giving up the rights of Netscape and selling most of the shares. But this time, Zhang Hao did not intend to give up like Netscape did. If so, what was the purpose of his cooperation with Jerry? Moreover, because of Netscape, Zhang Hao was already holding his breath. It was easy to say that he should bow his head again, but Zhang Hao himself could not get over it.
After much deliberation, Zhang Hao did not seek advice from a professional lawyer in the United States, because once he did, some things could not be kept secret. Although most American lawyers have professional ethics, Zhang Hao has experienced the power of the Immigration Bureau and other government departments, so Zhang Hao decided to ask Song Yuanchao for help to see if there is any way to guarantee his rights and interests in the new company without attracting the attention of the Immigration Bureau.
"You kid, you are really capable of making a fuss. It's only been a short time." Song Chaoyuan couldn't help but say this after listening to Zhang Hao's story.
"Oh, don't mention it. I didn't expect the website to develop so fast. I originally planned to complete my studies peacefully first, but now it has become like this in the blink of an eye. Brother, you have to help me with this matter. I don't know many people in the United States, and I dare not find an ordinary lawyer. What's more, this matter will involve other aspects in the future, so I can only come to you first." Zhang Hao said helplessly on the phone.
"You didn't ask the Hundred People Society for help? You are their member now. Isn't Dongfang Ze, who helped you join the society, a lawyer?" Song Chaoyuan asked back.
Zhang Hao said that he did not plan to seek help from the Club of 100 about this matter. After all, although he is now a member of the Club of 100, he has just joined the club and is not very familiar with the internal situation of the Club of 100. Not to mention whether the Club of 100 can help him, it will be troublesome if this matter gets out.
And although Dongfangze is a lawyer, they have only met once. In addition, Dongfangze and Jerry's relationship makes it even more inconvenient to contact Dongfangze. Isn't there an old saying? It's better to rely on yourself than on others. Don't trust outsiders too much. But Song Chaoyuan is different.
